Mystery
Domain of Prince John Custis, Camarilla Malkavian. Home of Wally, Anarch Malkavian. Prince John has an unusal power over the small town of Mystery. Those outside of town limits, specifically beyond the Welcome sign, are unable to speak about Mystery beyond generalities. He has an extreme case of paranoia and goes beyond typical means of controlling his domain. Under his rule is a chantry of Tremere. Their numbers are not yet known, but the location is somewhere on the Old Dominion University campus. There's a campy gas station with a convenience store about half a mile outside of Mystery. Wally suggests that it should be a relatively safe location to avoid detection. The streets seem quiet and empty come evening time. They’re not uninhabited, but the city seems to be able to hold four or five times as many people as it does. Along the west side of downtown, a small skyline of two dozen high rise offices, apartments, and condos reach out of the nearly perpetual blanket of fog on the ground to ten or twelve stories into the damp night sky of velvety low hanging clouds. An odd ambient glow shines down on the city as the moonlight filters and disperses through the mist above, which creates a sort of deeper darkness full of long shadows throughout Mystery. The headlights of passing cars momentarily cut through the murk like a knife, only to be quickly swallowed again, like dead flesh knitting itself back together. Old Dominion University This satellite campus in Mystery is a relatively small tract of land full of incongruities and thick with a feeling of quiet dread. The campus itself isn’t overly large; a single ground level parking lot capable of accommodating about three hundred vehicles is about half empty outside of the main building. The lot appears to be recently resurfaced with slightly reflective fresh smelling asphalt and bright crisp yellow paint delineating the spaces. An orange sign proudly proclaims that between 7 a.m. and 5 p.m. a student decal is required to park to within the lot, and all others will be towed, at the owners expense, of course. 'Monroe Hall' The main building is a large rectangular concrete edifice built in a mock classical style, complete with Corinthian columns etched into the exterior walls, and a freeze depicting men in eighteenth century colonial garb gathering around some document, which hangs some five stories over the main entrance to the building. The entrance itself is actually on the second story, as an elaborate set of sprawling concrete steps run from the ground level up to a set of six massive black tinted glass doors, over which the phrase “Potentia per Scientia et Familia” is etched into the concrete in calligraphy. A quick trip around the campus reveals that the admissions, the student union, the library, and a great deal of the classrooms are housed in Monroe Hall. Two additional smaller buildings with similar architectural styles make up the male and female dorms, and a newer looking and more modern building appears to house both the science and computer engineering departments. Despite its apparent age and architectural style, construction of Monroe Hall was only completed in 1993, and other buildings were constructed over the following four years. In all, it appears that about 750 students are currently enrolled at Mystery’s university campus, and about 250 of them live on campus in the dorms. 'Campus Security' Nothing to scoff at, there are never less than fourteen security guards who move with the skill and training of a professional force, not a rent-a-cop mentality. Several are not only equipped with high caliber side arms and tasers, but also tactical submachine guns. The installed security systems are several orders of magnitude beyond what a small satellite campus concerns itself with. Full video surveillance of the university grounds, key cards to open every door that doesn’t lead directly to the most public parts of the university reception office, and vibration sensors on all of the windows and glass doors. 'Occult References' Several of the motifs and reliefs depicted in various art that adorns the buildings and grounds have subtle occult significance to them. While they are probably not any sort of arcane working themselves, there are repeated references to the unfinished pyramid, the all-seeing eye, the great architect, and a central focus on the number seven that further backs up that this probably is where the Tremere chantry is located. Category:Locale